


With a Little Help from Our Friends

by possiblywonderful



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Birthday Party, Birthday Presents, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-01
Updated: 2013-11-01
Packaged: 2017-12-31 03:17:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1026616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possiblywonderful/pseuds/possiblywonderful
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Give him a voucher,” Erica says.<br/>“A voucher for what,” Stiles asks in return because on the list of the most uncreative birthday presents, a voucher most often ranks second. Right after a tie, that is.<br/>“Sex, of course,” Erica shrugs, an obvious ‘duh’ in the undertone, and takes a bite of her apple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With a Little Help from Our Friends

**Author's Note:**

> This is a birthday present for the lovely [Qhuinn](http://qhuinn.tumblr.com/) ♥

By now, Stiles knows Derek’s answer to the question ‚what do you want for your birthday‘ pretty well. It’ll always be something along the lines of ‘nothing, I’m fine with what I got’ or ‘I don’t need anything’. Which, cool. Stiles is all for modesty and not following the materialistic vibe the society has going and stuff. But let’s be real here. It sucks to always go fishing in the dark when it comes to getting Derek a birthday present. And it’s the same issue every single year. Stiles is more than totally fine with looking for a present but the thing is… Derek’s got a point when he’s saying that he doesn’t really need anything. Derek’s more the minimalistic type when it comes to material possessions and he doesn’t really care all that much whether he owns ten pairs of shoes or just two.

The problem is not that Stiles isn’t thinking about it. He’s been thinking about what to get his boyfriend for a solid month by now. But all he came up with was either too boring or, at the second thought, not a good present.

The matter is further complicated by Derek himself who happens to be amazing at picking out presents. Every single thing he ever gave Stiles for his birthday or Christmas or sometimes just _because_ , is still something Stiles loves and uses regularly.

So, to be quite honest, he needs help or this will turn into a total train wreck.

 

~*~

 

“Urm… what about a tie,” Scott says, scratching the back of his head with the pen he just wrote the shopping list with.

“A tie. Really, Scott?” Stiles shoots him a reproachful look.

“What? Isn’t that what the dads of the family usually get,” Scott sneers, chuckling to himself while he jots down _bananas_ onto the list.

“Very funny, dude. _Very_ funny. You’re not being helpful or supportive, at all.” Things is, it actually is funny if you think about it because somehow, Derek really is like the dad of the family. Or the pack, in this case. Stiles would be laughing if he weren’t that frustrated.

“Sorry, man but that’s on you. I mean, you always came up with something, right?”

“Yeah. _Something._ I don’t just want to give him _something_ when he always has these… amazing presents for me. Or everyone really,” Stiles groans, shoving his face into his hands.

“Don’t make this into some kind of competition because frankly, you’ll lose against Derek’s presents. They really are awesome,” Scott remarks, looking at him with an easy expression on his face.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence here, buddy. Appreciate it.”

“You get what I mean, Stiles. Derek’s happy with whatever you’re gonna get him,” Scott tries to cheer him up, patting him on the shoulder but it’s rather counterproductive. Now Stiles feels like a complete idiot because Derek does think of the best presents to get for them and he does it without having to ask anyone for advice and actually considering getting someone a tie because he’s out of ideas. Stiles did consider getting Derek a tie for 0.25 seconds just now. He’s the lousiest boyfriend to ever exist.

“I can’t get him a tie. I can’t get him something dull and I don’t turn this into a competition. It’s not that… I don’t want to get him a great present because he gets _me_ great presents. I want to get him something awesome because he is awesome and I uh… I love him.”

“Dude, that was probably one of the cheesiest things I ever heard from you. Right after your fiery speech where you announced you wanted to give Lydia a pet because she said she wanted one but her parents wouldn’t let her.”

Stiles groans out loud and lets his head fall onto the table. “Don’t ever remind me of that.”

“I can still see her face the moment you put this massive spider in her hand and she screamed so loud I was afraid the window glass may burst. Your dad wasn’t even mad at you for doing that. It was like this whole display of emotion washing over his face where he knew he should actually scold you for it but couldn’t because he tried so hard not to laugh in front of the teacher,” Scott snickered out, drawing a small twirl on the edge of the paper.

“I was a kid and thought a pet was…,” Stiles flails, looking for the right thing to say. “…was a pet no matter what animal it is? How was I supposed to know that she didn’t like spiders? And I still thank my dad for understanding that.”

“That’s because he _is_ pretty great,” Scott agrees, clapping Stiles on the shoulder again. “But I’m sorry, I gotta run now. Still need to get some things for tonight’s dinner.”

“Yeah, okay. Thanks for the help though.”

“Not that I really helped all that much,” Scott says and he’s got his apologetic puppy look. A lethal weapon feared by many.

“Nah, it’s fine,” Stiles waves off.

 

~*~

 

“Give him a voucher,” Erica says.

“A voucher for what,” Stiles asks in return because on the list of the most uncreative birthday presents, a voucher most often ranks second. Right after a tie, that is.

“Sex, of course,” Erica shrugs, an obvious ‘duh’ in the undertone, and takes a bite of her apple. Stiles nearly chokes on air. He probably won’t ever get fully used to Erica talking this freely about someone else’s sex life. Especially not Derek’s and his.

Boyd, who’s sitting next to her, a book in his lap, snorts out a laugh. “It’s not really a present if they’re having it every day anyway.”

“Thank you, Boyd, but that’s totally beside the…”

“It is special if it’s something they’ve never done before,” Erica retorts before she faces Stiles again, ignoring Stiles’ exasperated _Hey!_ “Have you ever tried pegging,” she asks instead.

“Why would they? They both have dicks, they don’t need to…”

“Oh my god!” Stiles leaves the room with his fingers scrunched into his ears, a solid flow of loud _lalalala’s_ streaming out of his mouth. It may not be much but the little bit of dignity Stiles has got left is there to stay so he’s 100% not going to stand there while Erica and Boyd discuss Derek’s and his sex life. No way, sir.

 

~*~

 

“Why don’t you get him something practical,” Allison suggests while she reaches for another arrow.

“Practical as innn…,” Stiles asks, making a ‘keep going’ motion with his hand.

“Something he could use and take joy in,” she explains, drawing back the arrow in her bow without faltering one bit.

“That’s as if we reached that couple phase where you get your partner something practical out of a massive lack of originality. It’s like getting your wife a kitchen machine for her birthday. That’s one of the dullest things possible.”

Allison laughs, shooting the arrow right into the center of her target. “I didn’t mean to be _that_ blunt, Stiles. I mean, you know his hobbies and you know what he likes. Get him something that he actually takes joy in. Like…,” she says, falling quiet for a second or two. “Like a book. He likes to read, right?”

“Yeah, he does,” Stiles nods and tries not to think of Derek with his reading glasses on. A++ boner material and he really doesn’t need to get a boner. Even less in front of Allison because no, weird.

“Good,” she smiles sweetly and reaches for another arrow, seemingly done with the discussion. Stiles adds ‘book’ as another bullet point to his mental list of lame boyfriend birthday presents.

~*~

“You’re pathetic,” Lydia says, raising an eyebrow at him.

“I know. Can you help me or not?” Stiles may be whining but if he wants this year’s present to be special, he needs to join forces.

“I can. But I won’t. That’s your business, not mine,” Lydia says while she stores away the orange juice back into the fridge.

“But you’re in his pack too. Show some effort!” As soon as he said it, Stiles knows it was the wrong thing to say. Especially to Lydia.

She turns around sharply, eyeing him with that slid-eyed look on her face. The one that says _I’m gonna take you down without moving a single finger_. “Unlike you, I’m not having sex with him nor am I in a relationship with Derek.”

“Wait, why are those _two_ things? Would you sleep with him even if you weren’t in a…”

“Stiles, stop making a fool out of yourself. I got my present for him weeks ago and if you can’t manage to do so, then I ‘m sorry but you’ll have to deal with it. It’s not like you’re incapable. You just think you are but you know him the best so you will come up with a good present _without_ taking the easy way out by pestering all of us.” And with that, she’s gone, leaving for the front door.

Stiles, on the other hand, stares after her because she a) might just have given him the boost of confidence he needed for this and because b) actually didn’t deny that she’d sleep with Derek.

 

~*~

 

“Hey, favorite Dad of all time,” Stiles slurs when he enters his father’s kitchen.

“I’m not helping you out finding a present for Derek,” his father’s waves off, steadily stirring the soup on the stove.

“How did you even know about that,” Stiles asks him exasperated.

“Scott told me when he picked up Melissa earlier on for their weekly movie date.”

“That traitor. Never telling him anything again,” Stiles says.

“I would’ve known anyway because you usually mope around weeks before Derek’s birthday because you’re having a hard time finding a present,” his dad shrugs.

“So what if I would not have had a hard time this year. What if Scott’s just saying I am because he wants to uh….. because he wants to?

His dad says nothing, simply shooting him a glance, raising his eyebrow.

“Okay, okay. So I’m actually having a little trouble. So what,” Stiles asks, leaning his elbows on the counter, putting his chin on his hands.

“Nothing. It’s what you do most of the time so it’s nothing unusual,” his dad smirks, adding a pinch of salt to the soup.

“It’s totally not what I… okay. Maybe it is,” Stiles groans in surrender.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

“I’m not even worrying. It’s just frustrating, you know. I just wanna find a good gift for him,” Stiles says, running his hand through his hair.

“You will, son. It just takes time. You’ll know once you find the right present.”

“I know… I know. Yeah. I’ll just… yeah.”

After a moment or two, his father puts the spoon down and walks over to him to clap Stiles on the shoulder. “Derek’s happy when he can spend time with you and the rest of the pack. That’s what he likes most, I think. Spending his birthday with him is one of the biggest presents you can make him, if you ask me.”

Stiles only nods in return.

 

~*~

 

“Cook him a nice dinner,” Isaac grunts from under his bed where he tries to look for something that sounded an awful lot like discman. Who in the world still got a discman nowadays and actually uses it? Isaac really is as retro as Stiles thought he was.

“We kind of already cook together on a regular basis. That wouldn’t really be something special unless I get the cream of the crop and do something super fancy. I could do that but… Derek would want to help a lot because that’s just what he does and… hm… I’d need to prepare it beforehand when he’s not home,” Stiles muses, starting to let his mind wander off.

“You could… uh… you could, oh god damn it,” Isaac mutters trying to emerge from the floor from under his bed without bumping his head into something. It takes him a good solid twenty seconds until he’s standing beside Stiles, dusting his clothes off. “I mean, you know what he likes and what he doesn’t. Food-wise, that is. You could pull it off. You cook well enough, by far.”

“Aaww, you shouldn’t have,” Stiles grins, bumping his shoulder into Isaac’s. “What do you need that for anyway,” Stiles asks, nodding his chin in the direction of the discman in Isaac’s hand.

“It’s uh… for one of the kids at the center. He said his brother gave him a bunch of older CD’s he wanted to listen to but he’s more of a private kind of person so I promised him I’d bring him my old discman so he could listen to them in his room.”

“Cool. I used to have one of those too. Not sure where it is though.”

“I only knew that it was in one of the boxes I packed before moving here. Of course not which one exactly though,” Isaac groans.

“That’s why you had your little mission to the land of dust bunnies, old tortilla crumbs and lost pennies,” Stiles chuckles.

“Yup,” Isaac answers, popping the p. “But in the end I found it so there’s that. And it’s not even dusty down there.”

“Yet,” Stiles laughs.

“Yeah. Yet,” Isaac agrees grinning.

 

~*~

 

“Do something exciting,” Jackson pants, jogging past him to pick up the lacrosse ball that flew past Stiles mere seconds ago.

“Whoa. Don’t be too specific here. I wanna have some room for my own ideas too,” Stiles says sarcastically.

“You mean for the ideas you’re not having,” Danny grins, leaning against the goal post.

“Ouch, dude. Right into the ego,” Stiles clasps his hand to his chest as if he’s been stabbed. Danny simply keeps on grinning.

“Derek’s the kinda guy who secretly likes a good chase and enjoys a good fun. Not your average chase around the house but something a bit more… creative,” Jackson says while he picks up the ball with his lacrosse stick.

“What exactly would that be, in your opinion?” Stiles eyes him skeptically. He knows Derek’s usually someone who enjoys staying home, getting cozy on the couch with the pack or just Stiles to keep him company. But from time to time, he likes to break out of that daily routine and do something extraordinary. Like waking Stiles up at half past three in the night to drive to the coast with him to watch the sunrise and get breakfast at a dinner. Or buying tickets to the movies but going into a random cinema hall instead of the one they bought the tickets for.

“I don’t know. Get your own mind thinking, Stilinski. He’s your boyfriend, not mine. Be creative for once” Jackson throws him an unimpressed look before he lets out a muffled _unf_ after being hit in the chest by a lacrosse ball.

“Be nice, Jackson. Not everyone has the option of buying their girlfriend a tiffany’s necklace just because they can and because they’re lazy,” Danny interrupts, picking up the next lacrosse ball.

“Just so you know, she’s not my girlfriend. She’s a _friend_. And besides, what’s wrong with buying someone jewelry,” Jackson says, looking affronted.

“Nothing. When it comes to you, it’s the perfect ‘I like you enough to be around you and maybe even sleep with you but you’re not really my girlfriend type’ gift,” Danny snickers, throwing Jackson that playful grin he always uses when he’s teasing him.

“So what. At least I have a partner I can give gifts to, unlike you, you notorious single,” Jackson teases back and this would sound vicious to anyone listening in but Stiles knows that between the two of them, this kind of banter is never hurtful. It’s just the way they talk sometimes.

“You could give me gifts instead,” Danny suggests.

“Does that mean I have to sleep with you too,” Jackson asks, making a face, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips anyway.

“Nah, man. You’re not really my type,” Danny laughs, throwing up the ball playfully.

“I’m everybody’s type,” Jackson says, laughing upon the by now inside joke between them. It was a line the pack used every now and then on various occasions even though Jackson doesn’t really like to be mocked with those kinds of things. But this is not really mocking, it’s a good fun between friends and even Jackson admits that some of the things he said all those years ago are pretty funny today. He’s not denying he’d still say them though.

“Urrrm… I beg to differ. You’re not really my type either, Jackson,” Stiles tunes in, smirking.

“Even if I _was_ your type, I’m not crazy stupid enough to go for you out of all people,” Jackson retorts.

“Hey, I’m pretty sexy, okay?”

“Not because of _that_ , moron. You’re Derek’s boyfriend. You’re committed so you’re off limits,” Jackson shrugs and rolls his eyes when both Danny and Stiles go _aawww_ but there’s a small smile on his lips nevertheless.

“The years made you softer, Jackson. I like that,” Stiles says, nudging him with his elbow only to have his arm batted away.

“Shut up. Don’t you have somewhere else to be,” Jackson grunts, throwing a lacrosse ball at Danny who’s standing between the goal posts.

“Actually, I do now. I guess I figured out what to get Derek for his birthday. Thanks for the help, guys,” Stiles smiles and lifts his hand as a good bye gesture.

“You’re welcome. For whatever it is that helped you,” Danny waved back before he launched a counter attack on Jackson.

 

~*~

 

When Derek enters Scott’s house, he knows something’s off. Candles are lit in old candle holders, something Derek thinks must be music from the 1920s is playing in the background and there’s a bit of a heavy atmosphere hanging in the air. So he rounds the corner to the kitchen a bit more carefully than he’d usually does. “Stiles,” he calls out since it’s been Stiles who asked him to come here after work instead of going home to their place.

“Yes, dear. In the kitchen,” Stiles answers in a completely overstated tone.

“Stiles, what on earth is…..,” Derek starts to ask but when he actually does round the corner, he halts. “…going on here.” Standing in front of him is Stiles, dressed in dress pants, a fancy dress shirt and… suspenders. This gets weirder by the second.

“Stiles? What the hell is a Stiles? Is that a new nickname you got for me? I prefer to be called Antony,” Stiles levels him with a serious look but there’s still a playful spark in his eyes “You’re just in time. Dinner will be served in thirty minutes so you can wash up and have your change of clothing. Richard,” Stiles calls out and nods his head to the right “William’s here”. Derek’s about to ask who the hell Richard and William are when Scott rounds the corner, also dressed up in a typical roaring twenties outfit, suspenders and all.

“What exactly is going on here, Stiles,” Derek asks but he’s not as alarmed anymore. Stiles seems to be up to something so Derek thinks it’s best to just wait and see.

“William! Great you could make it,” Scott, no, Richard, says and claps Derek’s arm. Derek on the other hand just raises his eyebrow, throwing a questioning look towards a beaming Stiles. “I’ve got all the information you need for tonight. It’s upstairs on the bed, right beside your dinner clothes.”

Derek waits for Stiles, or Anthony, to say something but both him and Scott, or Richard, god this is confusing, stay quiet and just smile at him, nodding their heads towards the staircase. So Derek turns around and makes his way back into the hallway, still more than just a little bewildered. Voices are streaming in from the direction of the living room, laughter echoing through the halls. All of the voices are familiar though, belonging to different members of the pack and some of their parents so Derek’s put at even more ease in this admittedly strange situation.

When he enters Scott’s old bedroom, he sees an envelope lying on the bed, right beside the outfit they spoke of earlier on. Upon opening the letter, Derek finds three cards and a small folded piece of paper that he takes out first. It’s a short message, written in Stiles’ handwriting.

 

_Derek,_

_I know this all must be pretty confusing but it’ll all make sense in a minute, I promise. I thought about what I could give you for your birthday long and hard and this is the outcome of my thinking._

_It’s a murder mystery dinner set in the 1920’s (do you like my suspenders? ;D) and the cards in the envelope contain the rules and the role you’ll be playing for the night. I hope you will have at least as much fun as I, or rather we did, preparing this._

_I love you. Happy Birthday._

__

_~~Stiles~~ _ _Antony_

 

Chuckling to himself, Derek folds the letter and puts it back inside the envelope, shaking his head in amusement. Now he gets all the strange behavior the pack had in the recent weeks. All the random advertisements about swing music, suspenders and ‘dinners from the 1920s’ Google presented him with. It was all due to Stiles’ birthday plans for him.

Still smiling to himself, Derek got the three cards out and started to read the instructions and the description for his character. William.

 

~*~

 

“I hate to say it but I didn’t take you for a brutal killer,” Derek grins into Stiles’ shoulder, planting a kiss on his collarbone when they're lying in bed later on.

“Well, the more you know, right,” Stiles says, starting to laugh shortly after when Derek’s lips ghost over a ticklish part of his neck.

Derek just hums in return and keeps on kissing his boyfriend’s neck for a while. After a few long, silent moments though, he draws back a bit and looks down at Stiles. “Thank you for this amazing present. I don’t know how you came up with something so creative when you’ve been out of ideas less than two weeks ago.”

“Oh god, was I _that_ obvious,” Stiles groans and rubs his hands over his face.

“Yeah, you kind of are to me by now,” Derek smirks, planting a kiss on Stiles’ nose.

“Great,” Stiles huffs out but he’s smiling too. “And actually, the pack helped me quite a bit even though, on the other hand, they were super unhelpful too.”

“You need to elaborate a bit because that doesn’t really make sense.”

“Okay, so I was growing a bit… or rather _very_ restless because I couldn’t think of a present for you. So I started asking the others and they gave more or less… uncreative answers that I puzzled together and came up with this,” Stiles shrugs.

“Uncreative as in,” Derek asks curiously.

“Scott suggested I should give you a tie because that’s what dad’s usually get,” Stiles starts to tell, nodding his head when Derek throws him an unimpressed look.

“Yeah, I know,” Stiles laughs out, resuming to talk. “Allison said I should get you a book. My dad said I should give you time, Isaac said I should cook you a dinner, Lydia got me a boost of confidence and Danny and Jackson said I should do something unusually exciting for you. So here we are.”

“How did you get from those random ideas to such a cool murder mystery dinner idea,” Derek looks at him incredulous.

“Okay, you know how my head works in odd ways sometimes,” Stiles asks and flicks Derek’s shoulder when his boyfriend nods a bit too enthusiastically, causing them both to start laughing again.

“I guess it clicked somewhere between my dad telling me to spend time with you and Jackson and Danny telling me to do something fun and action loaded. I’ve read about those dinners somewhere on a blog a while ago and so I brought all their suggestions together.”

Derek nods, slowly puzzling the pieces together himself.

“Scott’s tie is our fancy clothes tonight since you look smoking hot in them. Allison’s book is the crime novel the dinner is loosely based upon and you love to read these kinds of books. The dinner we cooked was based on Isaac’s idea and he helped me greatly with the cooking,” Stiles explains, drawing small circles on Derek’s chest with his finger. “Jacksons and Danny’s idea let me think of those murder mystery dinners and well, I guess the time idea my dad had speaks for itself. And Lydia’s suggestion made me go through with it.”

“Amazing,” Derek says, kissing Stiles lightly. “Why didn’t you ask Boyd and Erica though?”

“Oh, I did,” Stiles admits.

“Was their idea too awful to use,” Derek snorts, kissing Stiles’ ear.

“No, not really but I don’t think the others would’ve liked it if I would’ve included it into the official part of tonight’s program,” Stiles preens.

Even though Derek can already think of what their answer must’ve been, a) because he knows them well enough and b) because it’s kind of obvious now, he asks anyway. “What was their suggestion?”

“Sex,” Stiles says, a full-body shiver washing over him when Derek nibbles on his earlobe.

“I like that very much,” Derek whispers into Stiles’ ear, kissing it again.

“I figured as much,” Stiles smirks, letting his fingers brush over Derek’s lower back.

“Say, do you still have those suspenders,” Derek murmurs in a husky voice.

“Of course I do,” Stiles answers, smiling into the kiss Derek initiates.

He is glad he actually bought those suspenders because the stains they got on them later that night sure as hell won’t come out no matter how often they’d try to wash them.

**Author's Note:**

> Isaac is working at a home for foster children and children that can't live with their parents at that point in their lifes. He decided to do that because he wants to help kids that are in a similar situation he's been in when he was younger.
> 
> The music that's playing in Scott's house when Derek gets there would be something very similar to [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMMUlU1PY8E).  
> And if you are interested in murder mystery dinners and want to read more about them, you can do that [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_mystery_game).
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> If you have any questions, ideas or constructive criticism, feel free to send a message or a comment my way here or on my [Tumblr](http://possiblywonderful.tumblr.com). This has also been posted [here](http://possiblywonderful.tumblr.com/post/65663532260).


End file.
